Advertisers prefer to target their advertising and marketing (collectively hereafter, “marketing”) to specific groups of consumers. Advertisers prefer to target their marketing because marketing that is targeted to a specific group of consumers is more effective than mass marketing. When marketing by mail, the location of a consumer can be identified by the consumer's address. The advertiser can define a group of consumers by their state, city, zip code, neighborhood, or any other criteria related to the consumers' addresses. Once the group is defined, the advertiser can then target the marketing to the specific group of consumers. Thus, when marketing by mail, advertisers are able to easily identify specific groups of consumers and modify their marketing to target the specific group of consumers.
Unfortunately, advertisers who market on television have difficulty identifying the location of the consumers. Advertisers are typically limited to defining the group of consumers as the consumers who are within the broadcast range of the television station, which may cover several cities or states. Advertisers would prefer to know the specific location of the consumers so that the advertisers could target their marketing by classifying the groups of consumers by their state, city, or neighborhood. Therefore, a need exists in the art for a method of identifying the location of a plurality of consumers within the broadcast range of a television signal so that advertisers can target their marketing to the consumers.
The invention of digital cable and satellite television has changed the way service providers and consumers use television. Unlike broadcast television which is unilaterally transmitted to the user's television, digital cable and satellite television create a communications path in which data can be transmitted back and forth between the user's television and the service provider. One of the most common tools that uses this communication path is the interactive television programming guide. The interactive television programming guide allows a user to browse the television programming on all channels and at any time into the future. Thus, the user can choose to see the type of programming that is on the television at a particular hour of a particular day. These features are made possible because the cable set-top box, satellite receiver, or Digital Video Recorder (DVR) sends a user ID to the service provider in conjunction with the request for additional data. The service provider acquires the information requested by the user and sends the requested information back to the location associated with the user ID. The user ID is useful because the user ID correlates to a user profile stored at the service provider. Until now, the service provider has been the only party to access the user profile. However, if an advertiser accessed the user profile, then the advertiser could determine the location of the consumer. Therefore, a need exists for a method of identifying the location of a consumer by his user ID so that advertisers can target their marketing to the consumer.
A Digital Video Recorders (DVR) is a device that digitally records television programming for later viewing. A user may also use a DVR to pause live television programming until the user is ready to continue watching the paused television programming. DVRs are well known in the art as evidenced by the DVRs produced under the trademarks TIVO® and REPLAY TV®. When DVRs are used in conjunction with digital cable and satellite, a user can instruct a DVR to record a specific show at specific time. The storage of the television program in the DVR memory creates an opportunity for an advertiser to target the marketing contained in the television program to the user. Therefore, a need exists for a method for modifying the marketing stored in the memory of a DVR so that the marketing can be targeted to a consumer based on the information in the user's profile.